BRUNSWICK
A local group concerned with environmental conditions at former Brunswick Naval Air Station showed its appreciation for the staff at Curtis Memorial Library with a certificate of merit.
Brunswick Area Citizens for a Safe Environment presented the library and its workers with the award for maintaining access to public records and documents regarding the former base.
Of particular importance, according to former state legislator and group president Ed Benedikt, is that the library organizes records pertaining to environmental remediation there as monitored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Ever since sections of the base were declared Superfund sites in 1987 — meaning they were so polluted as to be eligible for millions of dollars in federal cleanup funding — the library has filed the reams of reports and analysis generated by the military’s subsequent Installation Restoration Program.
Local maintenance of the records is even more vital now that the Navy has closed the base and largely left town, Benedikt said.
Alldocuments are kept on DVDs and in publicly-accessible three-ring binders.
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